MADISON, Wis (AP) ― A Green Bay-based Internet gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter last year sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five at Northern Illinois University on Thursday.

Eric Thompson said Friday that his Web site, www.topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Stephen Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide.

The order was shipped on Monday and records of the sale provided to The Associated Press by Thompson show Kazmierczak received the order on Tuesday.

Kazmierczak carried a rifle and three handguns into the classroom Thursday. Thompson said he had no idea whether the shooter was using the holster or magazines he sold. Each magazine can hold 33 bullets. Thompson said his site did not sell Kazmierczak any bullets or guns.

Authorities said two of the weapons he used in the shooting - the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun - were purchased legally Feb. 9 in Champaign, Ill., where Kazmierczak was a student.

This is the second time that a Web site run by Thompson's company, TGSCOM, Inc., has been connected with a campus shooting. Another Thompson site www.thegunsource.com also sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in April on the Virginia Teach campus before killing himself.

"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said Friday. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this."

Thompson said he checked his sales records after the name of the shooter was made public on Friday. Those records show the sale made to Kazmierczak for a total price of $105.62. The items were shipped to an apartment in Champaign and signed for by someone other than Kazmierczak.

Thompson said he contacted the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives within five minutes of realizing the latest connection shortly after 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Thompson said his Web site is well-known among gun users on the Internet so it is not surprising that someone looking for accessories for a Glock would find it. But being tied to both of the shootings is "unnerving," he said.

"I still feel just absolutely in shock," he said. "I feel like I was run over by a truck."

Thompson said he has no way of knowing whether Kazmierczak found out about his Web site from the publicity it got after the Virginia Tech shootings, but the thought crossed his mind. The Web site did see an increase in traffic after that shooting, he said. Thompson said he also received many phone calls and threats.

He said he's worried the same thing will happen this time around. But he decided to go public because he thought the public has a right to know as much as it can about the shooter and not feed off of rumors or outright lies.

The story is typical of the MSM’s hysteria. Of course if some deranged maniac idolized the VA Tech shooter, he could buy some parts from the same store, just to walk in his idol’s footsteps. Does this mean the gun store is at fault, or liable, or should be shut down? Not at all. If anything, the media is liable for putting out the information about the original crime, and which store the last killer brought what items from. But, will they hold themselves liable? Never.

4
posted on 02/16/2008 8:13:50 PM PST
by coloradan
(The US is becoming a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)

1 - The media does NOT, ever, show pictures or publish the names of the sick ba$$tards that commit these crimes. 2 - The media DOES point out how these nameless, pathetic, sick individuals, while needing help, still lived and died in vain.

Point: why, why, ever, give these folks this much press??? Is bad enough their families are a mess, but WHY provide other sick-minded people with an assured path to fame???

All these deranged shooters have one thing in common. They were suppose to be on medication. These behavior drugs need to be scrutinized by the medical profession for triggering off violent acts and suicides. These shooters intend to commit suicide by police by killing other people and wait for the cops to execute them or they in the end realize what happen shoot themselves. Banning guns will not stop these killings because alternatives to guns will be used such as homemade explosives (by the way the most common type of weapons used in homicides in Communist China). Same careless research is being done by the MSM on the Columbine shooters, by blaming it on bullying or video games. Not mentioned is the shooters have been on meds for most of their teenage life. Nobody is studying this link to all the unbelievable violence being committed by kids or adults who seem quiet or normal.

Yes, thanks for bringing up this clear connection of meds... lib-tard mentality is certainly assisting with free-flowing meds as a solution to what was once normal behavior. I think that we have at least one generation of such miss-treated young people out there!

"Eric Thompson said Friday that his Web site, www.topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Stephen Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide."

'cause, you know, the holster is what set the whole thing off. If he didn't have that, none of this would have happened.

I went to the doctor to try to get something for sleep. I was thinking Ambein or something. He wanted me on Paxil. I said no, its addictive and have seen its effects. He said "What do I have against doctors?" I said just give me some Ambien. He said it's addictive and Paxil isn't. I said "That's what I have against doctors". When I know more than they do, it's scary.

Surly they have seen the effects of the drugs they prescribe.

A neighbor of mine was trying to ween himself off Effixor. He finally cried all day and stayed in bed and finally wanted to kill himself. He went to his doctor and the doctor said, "Why do you want to stop taking it?" IMHO, they want us all to be "Stepford" people. He never was the same after taking it, and then couldn't get off of it.

I remember the argument way back when that the gubmint should legalize drugs, get people hooked, and then tax the hell out of it. I think the pharmaceuticals have done it. Permanent patients for life. Until, of course you kill a bunch of people and put the gun in your mouth.

Yeah and Ford, Chevy, and numerous car dealers have sold cars to people who drive recklessly or drunk or both and kill people. Let’s sue them all since more people are killed in wrecks ever year than shot.

I've had personal experience with this med (Effexor) due to post partum depression. It is no more addictive than high blood pressure meds or thyroid medication.

If you were to suddenly stop taking either of those and you have some negative physical symptoms...does that mean you are addicted? Of course not.

Those types of meds (SSRI's) have to be started gradually and stopped gradually. Anytime you change the level of chemicals in your brain radically, you can be sure to expect some nasty symptoms. Migraine headache is how I'd best describe it. Heroin withdrawal? lol You have to be kidding.

23
posted on 02/16/2008 9:34:25 PM PST
by TNdandelion
("I have no doubt that Sen. Clinton would make a good President"--John McCain)

That same article says he was also in the Army but got out on what was formerly known as a section 8. Now I find that a bit hard to believe, since there would be a record of that, as well as a record of his residence at a psychiatric facility. No way would an instant check, which he passed at least 3 separate times, not catch that. Unless perhaps it was because he was a juvenile at the time he was in the "facility". But that doesn't explain why it did not catch the Army psycho discharge, nor how he got to be a prison guard with the "Section 8" on his DD-214.

I say ban sociology! I mean if it saves just one life.. The founding fathers certainly never anticipated graduate schools full of sociopathic sociologists, no matter what they wrote in the first amendment. {/s

26
posted on 02/16/2008 9:46:47 PM PST
by El Gato
("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)

I wouldn’t like to see dealers scared out of business, of course, but I do have some reservations about firearms sales over the Internet. Your average bricks-and-mortar gun dealer will risk being sued for discrimination (which there ought to be a law exempting gun dealers from, until we can get rid of it for all private businesses) before he’ll sell a gun to someone who is obviously hot under the collar and ranting about people he wants to kill. Gun dealers and private re-sellers of guns should be the on the front lines of preventing obvious crazies from getting guns, but if the only contact they have with a buyer is an online form showing the buyer’s name, the name of the item chosen, the credit card being used to pay for it, and shipping address, there’s just nothing to go on. The Virginia Tech guy just seemed like any random Asia guy living in Blacksburg, Virginia. But every single person who’d actually met Cho in person found him to show signs of severe mental instability.

I don't think you understand how internet "gun sales" work. All firearms purchased from a licensed dealer have to have an ATF Form 4473 filled out and a background check done. "Buying" a gun on the internet still requires this to take place before the buyer can take possession of the gun. If the internet seller is in state, the buyer would be required to go to the licensed premises in person to fill out the form, provide ID and have the NICS check done. Once the background check is approved, the buyer can take possession of th gun. If the internet seller is in another state, the firearm must be sent to a licensed dealer in the buyer's home state, where the above must take place.

As for this latest shooting, the shooter had a valid FOID card in teh state of Illinois, so so much for gun licensing preventing crime.

I live in Orange County, CA. Last year a family lost two young children when rear ended by a Tractor Trailer on the freeway. By using the logic based in this article, we’d better shut down all the Peterbilt Dealers in the country.

Yeah and Ford, Chevy, and numerous car dealers have sold cars to people who drive recklessly or drunk or both and kill people.

And the only thing you need to buy one is money &/or 'good credit'.

No license, drivers or otherwise; no Auto Owners Identification Permit to buy the car, gasoline, or accessories; no background checks; no waiting periods; no limit on cosmetic "racing style" features; no limit on number of purchases per month....

I got of Paxil a few months ago. It was not a pleasant experience. Lots of mood swings (which I still get today). However, I didn't kill anyone.. so I think the ssri and withdrawal is like beer, it may enhance an existing issue but doesn't cause it.

It depends on the dosage you were on and for how long I think. I got a lot of symptoms that were similiar to what has been described as heroin symptoms. Shakes, vomitting,, dizziness, tunnel vision, crying fits and so forth. And I did taper slowly.

Looks like the hysteria was fueled by the idiot business owner to me. Instead of pointing out any gun sales were done through an FFL with fed background check and sticking to that, he focused on mysterious BS mumbo jumbo and his bad feelings about being connected to it all.

Exactly! The question is why isn’t that line of thought being pursued? Meanwhile the medicating of the children continues. My guess is that it actually changes the brain when given during the formative years and once that happens it is inevitable that disaster, of some kind, will result.

I don’t know much about guns and I believe every law abiding citizen that is in their right minds should be able to arm themselves, HOWEVER, I think there should be some sort of review on how weapons are sold online. And I think there is nothing wrong with crimminal checks and waiting periods so that crimminals and weirdos will be deterred.

According to the article, he only sold magazines and a holster to the NIU shooter, none of which require FFL involvement. That the NIU shooter decided to order from this particular person can only be blamed on the media, for publicizing the fact of his relationship to the VA Tech shooter.

48
posted on 02/17/2008 8:32:33 AM PST
by coloradan
(The US is becoming a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)

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